Advances in room temperature curing adhesives and sealants-a review

Room temperature curing adhesives and sealants, defined here as those which cure without a mixing process under the influence of substrates or environmentally available reagents such as daylight, oxygen or moisture, include polyurethane, silicone, anaerobic adhesives, cyanoacrylate and certain acrylic types. Advances in cure chemistry, built‐in adhesion promotion, and in formulating techniques have created the scope for significant new properties within all the mentioned systems. In addition, development of resins having two (or more) different functionalities, which respond to substrate and or atmospheric cure agents, has created the potential to achieve new advanced performance levels. Examples of these include compositions which give light curing through acrylic functions while having RTV (room temperature vulcanising) silicone resin chemistry polymerising under the influence of atmospheric moisture. The properties can be tailored by molecular design, formulation and choice of cure accelerators.